Arnold van de Laar

Arnold van de Laar

Arnold van de Laar studied medicine in Leuven and currently works as a surgeon in the Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam. He regularly writes for the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Heelkunde. The German edition has been published by Pattloch Verlag and an English and Turkish translation are in preparation.

Press on Under the Knife:

In the wonderful Under the Knife, Van de Laar describes the most famous operations and patients in the history of surgery. Without shunning medical terminology he delivers a readable narrative – spiked with a myriad of interesting details – of the diseases and injuries of famous people such as Bob Marley, Empress Sissi, Lenin, Queen Victoria, Einstein and President Kennedy. – NRC Handelsblad

Van de Laar, a surgeon himself, has studied the surgical history of celebrated figures such as Albert Einstein and Louis XIV. He alternates his anecdotes with reflective questions: “What kind of people are surgeons actually? Where do they find the audacity to cut into another person’s body, even if under narcosis? Are surgeons crazy, brilliant or unscrupulous? Are they heroes or braggarts? A well-written and informative work. – De Volkskrant